Govt sanctions funds for unique identity numbers

New Delhi: Government Thursday sanctioned funds
for the second phase of the ambitious scheme to allocate
unique identity numbers to 10 crore of the country`s
population.

The Cabinet Committee on Unique Identification Authority
of India, at a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh, approved the commencement of Phase II of the scheme at
an estimated cost of Rs 3023.01 crore.

"Of this, an amount of Rs. 477.11 crore would be towards
recurring establishment expenditure and Rs. 2,545.90 crore
would be towards non-recurring project related expenditure,"
an official spokesperson said.

The estimated cost includes project components for issue
of 10 crore unique identity (UID numbers by March 2011 and
recurring establishment costs for the entire project phase of
five years ending March 2014.

The first set of 10 crore UID numbers are expected to be
issued between August 2010 and March 2011. Thereafter, 600
million UID numbers are expected to be issued within the next
three years. The UID project would provide unique numbers to
all residents of India.

The UIDAI proposes to collect the demographic and
biometric attributes of residents through various agencies of
the Central and the State Governments and others who, in
normal course of their activities, interact with the
residents.

The UID project, established last year, is primarily
aimed at ensuring inclusive growth by providing a form of
identity to those who do not have any identity. It seeks to
provide UID numbers to the marginalised sections of society
and thus would strengthen equity, an official release said.

Apart from providing identity, the UID will enable better
delivery of services and effective governance.

The Phase 1 of the scheme comprised setting up necessary
infrastructure for offices at headquarters and regional
headquarters, creating testing facilities for running the
pilots and proof of concept (PoC) experiments, initial work of
creating standards in various areas of operations.

Setting up of a project management unit and hiring of
consultants for preparation of Detailed Project Reports for
various components of the project also formed part of the
first phase of the project.

The Phase I proposal was approved in November 2009.

The UIDAI has since established its Headquarters at New
Delhi and six out of the eight Regional Offices.